A pair of NASCAR Cup Series drivers will lead the field to green to kick off the 2021 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season Thursday at Martinsville Speedway.
Former Whelen Modified Tour champion and current JTG Daugherty Cup Series driver Ryan Preece won the pole for the division’s return to Martinsville.
Preece turned a fast lap of 18.607 seconds (101.768 mph) to secure the pole. He broke the previous track record of 101.014 mph set in 1986 by Greg Sacks in 1986 of 101.014. It was the 17th career series pole for Preece, the 2013 Whelen Modified Tour champion.
Preece’s fellow Cup Series competitor Ryan Newman scored the outside pole with a fast lap of 18.676 seconds in qualifying.
Eric Goodale (18.755 seconds) was third fastest during the qualifying session.
Tommy Catalano (18.772 seconds) and Woody Pitkat (18.816 seconds) rounded out the top five respectively.
Thursday night’s season opening event for the Whelen Modified Tour marks the first visit to Martinsville for the series since June 2010. Bobby Santos III won in the division’s last trip to Martinsville. Preece won the Sept. 2008 event at Martinsville.
Kyle Ebersole, Justin Bonsignore, Jon McKennedy, Patrick Emerling and Tyler Rypkema rounded out the top-10 in qualifying respectively on Thursday.
Track pass sucks. The first time these announcers ever saw a modified was 2 minutes before the green. Oh well what do you want for 3 bucks a month. Better than nothing I guess
Surprise; Tommy Cat 4th
What else is new; Missy last
Fifield might not be that popular in this forum but she has a lot of well wishers on Facebook. Seems she was getting new Billy the Kid power a couple days ago at Fury, posted it and got a really nice response. She sure does love it so. Good for her.
It does suck, I signed up and have waited for the activation email… race is close to over by now… lame..
Preece is getting that car dialed in. If he were running the full schedule he’d be a threat for the championship.
Fifield could sell that motor as “barely used”.